SAUGERTIES >> Ginny Farris’ first taste of baking came when she was 11 years old and her mother handed her a bag of Nestle chocolate chips.

“‘Do you think you can make these?’ she told me,” said Farris, owner of Sugar Me Sweet Bakers,

Farris took up the offer. She said her mom enjoyed the cookies so much that she promised to always have the ingredients for them on hand.

That began a sweet odyssey that’s lasted over 40 years. And a dream to open a bakery that stretches back 30 years, she said.

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But then, she got married and had four daughters and a son and, she said, she had to put those plans on hold.

“My children were young and I just didn’t have time,” she said.

But then her children grew up and moved out of the house. That’s when she said she got serious about opening her own bakery.

“I just knew it was something I had to do,” she said. “My goal was to eventually open a bake shop.”

Farris added that she turned to friends and family for advice, took a course about starting a business and read several books about opening one.

“I’m a person who really thinks things through before I do them,” she said. “I had a lot of time to think it through and to plan it.

“I had never owned my own business before.”

And, Farris said, she knew from the start she wanted to start small and not get over her head. As a result, she went with what is called a microbakery

Farris said she started scouting for locations around her native Saugerties and found a location in a small hipped roof building that once served several drive-thru businesses on U.S. Route 9W at the border of the village and Barclay Heights. She knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else besides Saugerties, she added, because she grew up in the town and knew everyone.

After the bakery opened, it took a few months to get in the groove of things, according to Farris.

“You take it one day at a time,” she said.

Along the way, she said, she’s always been able to count on the help of her children. Her son helped her put the shop together over the course of two or three months, she said, and her daughters helped with decorating and business advice.

She just hired her first employee. And, in that time, she said, she’s enjoyed nothing but success.

“When I first opened, I was hoping to have a few customers,” Farris said. “From day one, when the door opened, I was surprised how busy I was.”

Over time, news of the bakery has spread by word of mouth and on Facebook, she added. It became a hit with folks in Saugerties. Soon, folks from Kingston, Catskill and even Red Hook and Rhinebeck started coming in again and again, Farris said.

“It’s been overwhelming in a great way,” she said. “The reason I love to bake is it makes people happy.”

She takes great satisfaction when people come back to say just how much they enjoyed something, Farris said, adding she’s even got inquiries about doing weddings.

On top of the counter are neat and tidy cases filled with symmetrical lines of cupcakes. Behind the counter are trays and trays of cookies and cupcakes — two of her specialities.

Menu items are listed on several chalkboards above the counter, and several containers of sprinkles line the wall behind the counter.

Farris said she started out baking cookies. They ranged from classic soft and gooey chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies to buttercreme frosted cookies, to a party size cookie pizza sure to satisfy even the most ardent cookie lovers.

And, despite the proclaimed end of the cupcake craze with the demise of the Crumbs chain, she said cupcakes are still one of her most popular items.

“I don’t see a decline,” she said.” People seem to like getting cupcakes over a cake so they can have a large variety.” “They can order a dozen of maybe three or four flavors.”

Farris also said folks also enjoy her whoopee pies, along with a selection of brownies, blondies, smores bars and her very own lemonies.

Another favorite are her warm and gooey cinnamon roll bars. They feature a very thick dense bar with cinnamon and pecans, topped with cream cheese icing.

Farris said she’s spent years perfecting these recipes, which she said have come partly from friends and family. Other recipes she has come across over the years.

But, she said, she is never one to stop at following the instructions line by line. “I’ll take an existing recipe (and) make another version,” she said. “I like to try a different flavor in that recipe.”

Like her butter pound cake, which, she said, she began baking when she was in her twenties. It’s perfect for customizing, according to Farris.

“It’s like a blank canvas,” she said.

Over the year, Farris added, she’s learned to spot that perfect texture and flavor. I play around with it until it ended up the way I liked it.

Farris said baking is like a science, because one has to be careful with the portions of leaveners to flour. And her family and friends never mind being the test subjects for a new or re-imagined recipe.

After 40 years of baking Farris has never forgotten that first batch of cookies, and she said her most special moment at Sugar Me Sweet is tied to that memory.

She said her mother, who is now in her eighties, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and lives in nursing home, came to the bakery in March.

“It was so heartwarming to have my mom see my little bakeshop,” she said. “It was a very bittersweet moment for both of us.”

At times, Farris added, her mother has a hard time remembering things they did together, but she never forgets those memories of baking.

“When I talk to her about this, it’s truly my mom speaking,” she said. “It’s something that’s always part of me.”